SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ichor Medical Systems, Inc. (Ichor) is pleased to announce that their
partner Scancell Holdings plc (Scancell) presented updated and very
encouraging data from the ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial of SCIB1, its
DNA ImmunoBody® being developed for the treatment of patients with
melanoma, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in
Chicago. The trial is an open label, non-randomized study to
characterize the safety and tolerability of SCIB1 administered using
Ichor’s TriGridTM delivery system, as well as provide initial
assessment of the ability of SCIB1 to delay or prevent disease
recurrence in patients with Stage III/IV melanoma.

Among the sixteen Stage III (n=9) and Stage IV (n=7) subjects with
melanoma that was resected at the time of study entry, the median of
disease free and overall survival have not yet been reached. All sixteen
subjects are still alive, and 11/16 have remained disease free with a
median follow up duration of 34 months (range 27-46 months). In
addition, the data showed that the procedure was well tolerated. The
most common adverse events were injection site reactions, which were
mild and transient. Overall, these results suggest that SCIB1, delivered
by Ichor’s TriGrid, is safe, tolerable, and may confer protection from
recurrence of melanoma, with little associated toxicity.

SCIB1, the first product candidate derived from Scancell’s broad
Immunobody platform to enter clinical testing, is a DNA vaccine which
encodes a human antibody engineered to contain multiple T cell epitopes
derived from melanoma antigens. Scancell's Immunobody technology is
designed to facilitate recognition of these epitopes by the patient's
immune system, resulting in activation of highly potent, tumor-specific
T cells, translating into an effective anti-tumor response.

Ichor’s TriGrid platform, the first integrated and fully automated
device for electroporation-mediated DNA administration in humans, is
being used to deliver the SCIB1 DNA vaccine to overcome the suboptimal
potency observed with DNA vaccines delivered by conventional injection.
The TriGrid platform is being tested in clinical trials for a wide range
of disease indications, and has been recently licensed by Janssen
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Pfizer for infectious disease and oncology
indications, respectively.

Robert Bernard, Ichor Founder and CEO, stated, “Ichor is excited to see
that the TriGrid and SCIB1 therapy may be beneficial to these cancer
patients. We are optimistic about the potential for the TriGrid to
enable many more nucleic-acid based therapies to address a variety of
disease areas for current and future partners.”

Ichor Medical Systems’ TriGrid™ Delivery System (TriGrid) is the first
integrated and fully automated device for electroporation-mediated DNA
administration in humans. Ichor, a privately-held biotech company based
in San Diego, CA, is collaborating with partners to provide its enabling
TriGrid platform as a means for delivery of DNA drugs and vaccines in
disease indications such as cancer, malaria, hepatitis B virus (HBV)
infection, human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) infection, and Ebola, as well as for multiple biodefense
agents. Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
the TriGrid platform is also being developed for DNA-based antibody
delivery as a rapid countermeasure in the event of an infectious
outbreak or biological weapons attack. Visit http://www.ichorms.com.